Hey guys, so I’m about as green as green gets with this world. (HTML, JAVA, Networking, etc.) So take er’ easy on me.

I guess a little history as to why I am here now would be appropriate so; I’m 19 now (yes I’m arriving to this party a little late) but I’ve always been fascinated with computers and most things to do with them. So it’s no surprise (at least to me) that I’m here today. But as its apparent I am looking to get into learning coding, networking, hacking and what-have you. I’ve made extremely simple drafts of web pages with HTML before, although long enough ago that I have no sense of what’s up from down. In the last week or so I’ve been meandering around the internet with a real conviction to learn the ups and down with hacking. And before we go any farther, I am interested in both sides of hacking, whether it be white-hat or black. It interests me. Black-hat hacking interests me in not the maliciousness but the methods and processes some people come up with to overcome crazy security and “stick it to the man”. So don’t worry, you’re not going to see me as the next face getting arrested for attacking some credit card company. (I’m to paranoid for that kind of thing lmao)

As it has been posted numerous times before me, “where tha hell do I start?” don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of the threads here to see if I could answer my own questions. But I still feel I have many more, and probably will continue to have questions for a long damn time. I’ve dabbled through the HTML guides online and I still have a lot more to learn. I guess ill just jot down a list of what I’m interested in and whoever can help me out it would be greatly appreciated!

- What languages do I NEED to learn to get started? (HTML, JAVA, etc)- Am I better off sticking with windows, since I’ve used it forever. Or should I dive into LINUX? Or even a MAC (I used to have one)- Networking, lots of networking. (if that makes sense)

This is more going to be a hobby of mine, so I’m in no rush to learn everything ASAP. Although I’d love to quickly become a ninja with computers. And if I actually become proficient with this stuff I’d like to work in a field of work that is compatible with this knowledge… one step at a time.

I’m also not shy of dishing out some money for this new hobby of mine, so I’m asking what kind of computer would be sufficient for this kinda thing (I don’t want to be replacing it anytime soon) My price limit is 2000$ and I’m partial to a laptop. Should I be looking into Linux for a new system?

And I like privacy, I downloaded TOR and its pretty cool. “Google Deutschland” makes me chuckle every time. So any other programs like that are pretty interesting to me.

*After reading all this, my thoughts are kinda jumbled up, so if theres anything that doesn’t make any sense ask me and ill get it cleared up!

First off I'd like to say that it's refreshing to hear a new person who seems legitimately interested in this and isn't just learning it so to seem cool or whatever.

Just to clarify something: Black hat and white hat do and learn essentially the same thing. The only difference is that the white hat hacker does it to secure the system(probably employed by the system owner but not necessarily) while the black hat hacker is just trying to break into the system for whatever reason. I personally don't like the "hat" thing and I find it a little silly.

Anyway, I would learn HTML just because it is used on pretty much every website. Also required is a programming language. I would suggest C++ or Python or Perl. Those are all 3 good languages to know(If you want to know two of those, learn C++ and Python or C++ and Perl, for a newbie there isn't much reason to learn python and perl).

If I were you I would think hard about what you're most interested in. I, for example, was very interested in networking but for some reason I learned a lot of other things that I was less interested in first. So if you're interested in web security, the first thing to do is learn PHP and SQL and set up a website. If you're more into rooting the very first thing you need to do is learn assembly. But I would suggest learning C++ first because it makes some of the concepts easier to understand(and you'll definitely need C or C++ anyway).

If you want to know about networking(and it sounded like you did) I can suggest a few books that I read that I liked. The fun part about networking is that it is a very often overlooked subject. I can't count the number of times I've had to tell someone that the MAC address doesn't leave the LAN. The very first book that I read about networking is "The TCP/IP guide". This was probably a mistake because it is a 1500 book that goes into detail about many very common protocols used on the internet. I read the whole thing cover to cover, which was a bad decision because honestly I have no use for the packet structure of the LPD protocol. So I would suggest reading the Level 2(OSI Layer) section, the IP section, the level 4 section, and the HTTP section. The go to each chapter and read the first page and if it sounds interesting, read it. After that you should have a good idea of what you would like to know more about. This book is a little dry so if you get bored, try to find another book that you find interesting to read at the same time.

Unless your computer is a complete piece of shit, you shouldn't need to buy anything. Maybe a wireless card if you want to mess around with wireless.

As for the OS, you can stick with windows for now. I would try Linux just to see what it's like and maybe become familar with it. If you like it, you could use it as your main OS.

So, HTML then C++, followed by PHP and SQL since I'm more interested in networking for now. Do you know of any good books that cover any of thoses, yet isn't sahara desert dry. I haven't been a reader for quite some time. (Highschool didn't work for me) I'll look them up on amazon or something.

And my bad, I was under the impression Black and White were pretty much distinguishing Good & Bad. But as I'm writing this I recall reading somewhere in a newbie post that there were many shades of some sort. Ignore that statement.

And I would like to start this all on a clean slate, that is portable. So getting a laptop is a good choice for me. Then I can leave the ol' desktop as a scattered mess. Partially because at this point there is so much stuff jam-packed in there. I don't know what sort of malicious stuff I've collected over the years.

Edit; I saw http://www.w3schools.com mentioned many times. Is this pretty much all I will need? Between that google, and wikipedia I feel that I'll have an abundance of info.

I would go to w3schools for html. As for C++, I read an older edition of This Book and I thought it was pretty good. As for php and SQL I'm not the right person to ask. I read The PHP and MySQL bible like 4 years ago and I think I liked it at the time but I really can't remember. Someone else will probably suggest a better book or source. There are lots of good sources besides books, I personally like books but I'm sure you could learn this online somewhere.

As for w3schools for php and SQL, you could try there first. I think I tried it for php at first but for some reason I didn't like it. But I haven't been there for years so I'm not sure what it's like now.

General advice: When learning a new language, what I like to do is go to Project Euler and solve the first 10 or so problems with that language. It's good practice and by the end of it you should be pretty comfortable with the language.

Good/bad guys is pretty much right when it comes to white/black hats. You kind of made it sound like black hats learned different things, which generally they don't. White hats do have to learn about business procedure (for disclosing vuln's) more I guess, but the attacks should be the same.

Since Thetan is no longer around; I'll do it for him, http://w3fools.com/. Personally, w3schools I've found to be quite lagging with the times. Looking at other sites like http://www.codecademy.com/ and http://htmldog.com/ I think would be better resources for CSS, Javascript and HTML (If you end up interested in these areas). Not that I think w3schools is utter trash, I think better sites exist now.

One book I can heartily recommend (although getting behind in times, still relevant) is Hacking: The Art of Exploitation. It touches broadly upon most aspects of hacking: History, C and assembly language, Networking models, Network exploits etc.. One piece of advice if you do get it, run the CD environment in a Virtual Machine - made everything a lot easier.

ERDK wrote:As it has been posted numerous times before me, “where tha hell do I start?”

- What languages do I NEED to learn to get started? (HTML, JAVA, etc)- Am I better off sticking with windows, since I’ve used it forever. Or should I dive into LINUX? Or even a MAC

I would say learn HTML first, just to get the vibe for how programming languages work, and it's very simple to learn.Next I would recommend kicking in JavaScript or Python, learn one and then the other!Here are some good sources to learn in my oppinion.HTML, ASP, CSS, JavaScript, and other web design: w3schools.comJavaScript, Python, Html, CSS, and others: codecademy.comI would personally chose codecademy to learn from.

For the operating system, you can keep windows and download a linux distro onto a usb or disk. You can install it to a usb via unetbootin or burn it to the diskYou can pop it in, and once you think you are good enough to use it as a primary operating system, you can easily install it to your HDD or even create a dual boot allowing you to keep Windows and another Linux distro, which is what I would prefer you to do.You can even download virtualbox and then get a .iso file for any linux distrobution (I would recommend BackTrack 5 for actually hacking and Ubuntu 12.04 for an effective os) and make a virtual HDD with the os installed on it.

ERDK wrote:This is more going to be a hobby of mine, so I’m in no rush to learn everything ASAP. Although I’d love to quickly become a ninja with computers. And if I actually become proficient with this stuff I’d like to work in a field of work that is compatible with this knowledge… one step at a time.

I'm glad you said you have patience, as it will take years upon years to become good. I have been at it since I was 12, I am almost 20 now, and I only consider myself "okayish"...

ERDK wrote:I’m also not shy of dishing out some money for this new hobby of mine, so I’m asking what kind of computer would be sufficient for this kinda thing (I don’t want to be replacing it anytime soon) My price limit is 2000$ and I’m partial to a laptop. Should I be looking into Linux for a new system?

You can make an old junk computer a descent "hacking device" assuming it has okay specs.If you want to go all out and buy a new computer, go ahead by all means, but if your computer is already decent, you could put that money into software and many other useful things which may help you later on.

ERDK wrote:And I like privacy, I downloaded TOR and its pretty cool. “Google Deutschland” makes me chuckle every time. So any other programs like that are pretty interesting to me.

Always!If you think Tor is good, check out proxychains and learn how to use it efficiently with Tor I'm not sure what type of programs you are looking for, if you could clarify more, maybe I could give you more advice.I need a category, like: DoS, Privacy, Scanning, Exploiting, Cracking, Reverse Engineering, etc

ERDK wrote:Money is not an issue, I'm just looking for something i can dedicate to this. It helps me keep focus (I'm borderline ADHD) so having a rig solely for working on would be alot easier.

And for a specific branch or category... I honestly don't know.

edit* Money is not an issue, but i dont want to spend a fortune on a computer either

I understand that money is not a issue, I became aware of that from your op. I just recommend that you look into software and services that will help you reach your goal of learning how to hack.Things like hosting your own server, getting private shell scripts to perform stress testing on your own network, etc..As I said before, any computer can be just.I have a 500GB HDD, quad core, 4GB Ram, and it's more than enough and only cost about $300.However, the choice is yours. I would prefer a alienware, just cause they look pretty cool and well, as I said, a junker can still perform what you need it to with a fresh BT5 install; assuming it has okay specs.